A World Apart – Letting Go

As people tend to do, we hold on to things. We try and manage everything, control everything around us and pretend to ourselves that we have the power to do so. That even includes what might traditionally be understood as missional work. We try and control what God does in the lives of the people we seek to save. Missionaries, of course, will laugh at this statement, because they know better. They know that God’s the only one who decides what God will do. Look, for example, at Matthew 8:1-4:

“When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately he leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.’”

I understand this to say that it is entirely under the sovereignty of the Lord to heal or not heal as He sees fit, and I consequently extend this to point to the necessity of letting go of those things we want to hold up and say ‘look, I did this’ or ‘look, have I not been blessed to do this?’ The point I want to make is simply this: The job of a Christian is to live according to the new life in Christ that he has been given, and let God do the work of getting a hold of the heart. I have friends who say that the chances of fully converting them are slim, but present, and at that I smile inwardly and say, God, I’m just here to do the work I can. I can seek to become more Christlike, to share Him as he lives and works in me, but I can’t do the work in man’s heart to incline it towards Christ, or to remove it and give him a heart of flesh. That’s what the world doesn’t really understand with hope. That while many things are beyond our control, they are not beyond God’s.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency VIII – Accomplishment II

Very rarely will I be falling asleep at the keyboard for posts, but last night I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. Hopefully I’ll address the few loose threads left hanging here, and give a clean slate for A World Apart. So, to resume.

When I think about the sufficiency of the cross and of Christ, I am driven, as I said, to meditate further on why He had to die. The fact that he was so good and so completely able to meet the requirements of the law, and also to mediate a covenant of grace between the Father and His children, should give you sufficient reason to pause and think on it yourselves. What does it mean that He was able to, as at his baptism, do these things so that He might ‘fulfill all righteousness’.

I would hope that it means that Christ speaks truly when he says ‘It is finished’, and that we who claim Him now are covered by His mercy and his accomplishment. I would hope also that the doubts we face …that I face…from time to time regarding His sufficiency are minor things, not worthy of as much notice as we give them. But without knowing how it’s all worked out, I know that I’m going to have these dark times once in a while.

And that’s where sufficiency of accomplishment comes in. Jesus speaks against the lack of faith in both his disciples and in the Pharisees a great many times throughout the gospels. I could no sooner doubt that we face the same difficulty in faith now as they did so long ago than I could cease to breathe and continue to live. But with the promise of ‘It is finished’, Christ gives us grounds for claiming that sufficiency in our own lives, as well as the ability to believe it in faith.

We just don’t act on it. and that’s where we get tripped up by the illusion of it ‘not being enough’ or the illusion of it ceasing to be relevant to us, or the final and most keenly edged illusion of them all, the false belief that ‘my sins are so different, so much more painful than He can overcome’

He is sufficient, and, as I said at the very beginning of this series, I am nothing. He is everything, for everything is within His authority. John 5:26-27 gives us one of many touchstones on this:

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.”

All-in. It’s real. Next up: A World Apart. Be patient, and keep a weather eye.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Power – Belief

I’m going to be spending a lot less time on this than I thought, mostly because it’s late in the week and I’ve been wrestling with the questions of salvation, power and faith for the last few days. Now, I don’t know what this means, but it’s rather put a damper on blog posts, as you might have noticed. Still, Jacob received the name Israel when wrestling with God, and from him grew a nation. I note this because sometimes God uses great strivings to do mighty works. As I said earlier, when you have open eyes, things appear.

I had mentioned last time that I wanted to clarify some things a bit more for the remainder of the week. That means that this post and tomorrow’s will be dealing with the subject of power and Sunday’s will be a close to the Sufficiency series with ‘Sufficient Accomplishment” After that, I hope to start something called A World Apart. In the meantime…

I included, near the end of the last post, a little statement, throwaway at the time, that is going to come back in to sharp focus here. I said “Biblically, what marks a believer is a faith that declares the power of God to overcome in all situations. I’m drawing this from John 16:25-33 primarily, which declares:

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when each of you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. but take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Such a comforting passage in times of need, but also a word of great power. ‘I have overcome the world’ indeed.

I’m going to couple this with Romans 10:5-11:

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).’ But what does it say? ‘”the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”‘

I will also try to pull some meat from it for the post. What these passages seem to be saying is that belief in Jesus’ factual ministry and resurrection provides for two things. First, that he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and confesses it publicly and with conviction is assured of salvation; Christ’s atonement is sufficient. Second, that the assurance of salvation is rooted in the love of the Father for his children because of their love for Christ and the belief in his heavenly origins. In this assurance lies the power to overcome because Jesus overcame.

It’s funny how these posts never come out the way I think they will. Ultimately, I get lost in something other than what I had planned for, and head off in a new direction. This one was meant to comment on the importance of belief in the power of Jesus Christ to save and to overcome all obstacles, and it doesn’t look like it has accomplished that to me. I’m probably wrong, at least about some of it, but regardless, here you are.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer